My Random Journey Through Trek #14

Enterprise

S3 Anomaly

The Enterprise is traversing the expanse and is affected by some spatial anomalies which wrench the structure of the ship and the very laws that govern the technology of the ships systems, soon they come across a derelict ship showing signs of battle damage and they investigate. An alien craft appears and closes quickly with weapons armed, the ships engage in battle and in the midst of the chaos aliens beam over to Enterprise and begin to strip the ship of supplies, weapons and components from the engines. The Oosarian pirates flee into warp leaving Enterprise limping along using the sub-light drive but fortunately they are able to track the ion signature of the "pirate" ship and finally come across a break in the trail which indicates a hidden location. The ship enters this area of space and a huge sphere is discovered, they enter via the existing portal and realise this sphere is generating huge amounts of energy and could be responsible for the anomalies in this area of the expanse and more importantly they find a cache of supplies including almost all of those taken from the ship. The captured pirate confirms that his ship had destroyed a Xindi vessel a few weeks earlier and after Archer threatens him with death and maybe a little torture he agrees to help and when the Oosarian ship returns they are able to access their database and steal the information relating to the Xindi and after the battle Archer releases the pirate. They now have far more information on the Xinda and also know how to protect themselves from the anomalies, the spheres still remain a mystery though.

Anomaly was a pretty strong episode which helped to give the third season a good kick off however I was never really happy with how Archer acted in regards to the captured pirate. Yes time is of the essence and the Oosarian have probably proved themselves to be outside of the realm of where negotiation could have worked. However rushing to the prisoner and pretty much showing all your cards straight away rarely works, he may have got more information easier if he had played the prisoner rather than act like a deranged and desperate individual. I really liked the scene with the Maco's preparing to investigate the alien derelict, unlike the awful gel scenes we had men and women changing and gearing up with no unease or interesting in the fact there was flesh on display, they acted professionally and realistically unlike say Kirk eyeballing Marcus in the recent Trek movie.

So the spheres are revealed, well they are a big mystery awaiting the crew of the Enterprise and lets not forget the revelation that the Enterprise is badly equipped for operating in the Expanse but a solution has been found, as we know that will cause problems as well. Overall a good episode, easy to watch again and still holds up but why wasn't Julia Rose (Corporal McKenzie) used again, semi recurring Maco's and crew in general really adds to the realism of this sort of show.

IMDB

Rating  8

The Folded World

The Folded World by Jeff Mariotte is the latest novel in my resurgence of interest with the original Star Trek series stories which I grew up reading first from the James Blish era and right up to the latest breed of authors who are tackling the adventures of the NCC1701. The Folded World tells the story of the Enterprise while on route to the homeworld of the Ixtoldans encounters a spatial anomaly which has trapped a number of space ships including the USS McRaven which was also making the trip to the ceremonies intended to seal the incorporation of Ixtoldan into the Federation. The ambassadors on board the Enterprise pressure Kirk to ignore the anomaly and any rescue attempt as they believe the official ceremony is too important to their world and future for Federation representation to be absent. However Kirk as you would expect will not abandon any Federation ship and her crew and once they figure out how to breach the anomaly two shuttles are dispatched and the investigation begins.

The novel was published on April the 30th 2013 and is available as a paperback and ebook, I actually bought the paperback since the price differential did not make any sense to buy the ebook. It's a flaw in the pricing which at least to me seems to indicate a much lower profit margin on the physical media than the electronic so I'll pay a few pence more to own the book rather than a few hundred kilobytes of data.

So back to the story itself, it starts on a world which we are given very little information about, it's pre-technology and seems to be under the thrall of superstition but with very real events happening which leaves the local population dying and/or missing. We then take a big step away into the world we know from Star Trek with the usual crew and ship with one or two additional characters which play their part especially Miranda Tikloko who was the sole survivor of the canon events from Balance of Terror. She was at the time of the slaughter of the outposts by the Romulans onboard a shuttle and survived by shutting down and going dark and was undetected. She continues to suffer from the trauma of seeing her friends die and being alone in the void of space and McCoy is trying to work her through her issues but it's clear she has earned her place on the crew and is performing her duties to the level expected of the flagship.
Alas I can't really go into many details about the events onboard the derelicts within the folded region of space just that there are many ships from different races and in this area of space where time is in flux and chaos rules being dead doesn't always mean you are not still there.
Some of the reviews I've read for the book have not been too complimentary however many have also stated they were not original series die hards but as huge fan of the original series the story worked very well and had echoes of other stories which dealt with graveyards of ships but added in the mystical element and a huge conspiracy to hide events from the long distance past. The character of Miranda worked very well and her survivor guilt which Kirk also had to deal with after Tarsus IV was a key part of the story, it did add a lot of weight and onboard the derelicts within the folded space becomes critical to their hopes for survival.
Overall I enjoyed the book and while everything eventually makes sense it did take me a while to put everything into place, the opening chapters dealing with this mysterious people felt too unattached to the story I was expecting and I wonder if maybe one or two readers would have been turned off before getting into the Trek they may have been expecting.
The Folded World Amazon UK & US
Jeff Mariotte Official Site

Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 15

Star Trek Enterprise Marathon Part 15
Season 3 Disk 1

The Xindi
The Enterprise pays a visit to a penal colony to talk to a Xindi inmate but things
go wrong when the Captain is held captive and the crew lineup as a new workforce
for the mine. This was a solid start to the third season, we got to see the new MACO's
in action who prove to be a valuable addition to the crew and find a lead to the
homeworld of the Xindi.

Anomaly
Spatial anomalies disrupt the starship as the Expanse shows itself to be every bit as
dangerous as the crew were led to believe. A derelict ship is discovered but the
Enterprise is then attacked by another ship who steal supplies and other tech from
her. It's the chase that eventually leads to the discovery of a giant sphere hidden
within a folded area of space.
Another good episode, lots of action and Archer has to start asking himself how
far will he go to finish his mission.

Extinction
The Enterprise visits a world known to have been host to some Xindi but the landing
party are exposed to some sort of virus which mutates them into another humanoid
life form, one that is automatically exterminated by another race who fear the spread
of this contagion. A standalone episode which is pretty much average, nothing really
new with the story except to indicate how good Phlox is but always nice to see T'pol
getting down and dirty in the oh so tight outfit.

Rajin
A visit to a trading world has Archer returning with a freed pleasure slave much to his
own surprise, he treats her right but is she all that she appears to be.
Now Firefly really did this story better but Nikita Ager as Rajin played the role well
and pretty much had everyone fooled until she met T'Pol and her alien mind powers:)
Rajin was a lot of fun, worked well and gives the Xindi a lot more depth and menace.

The opening four episodes of the third season are very strong, three solid arc episodes
and a standalone is a good spread, it's going to be a good season.